Pioneer Troubadours ON THE ROAD AGAIN SERIES Will tell the road stories of old and new... from Pioneer Troubadours to the new acts barn burnin'

"The stories from my favorite books, take on many different looks and I am home again gone again."     Jimmy Buffett

Rodney Crowell asks Johnny Cash once, "What do you do to get really famous?"  Cash said, "Go to the airport 290 times a year."

Since Medieval times Troubadours have been traveling from town to town, totin' a guitar, or other musical instruments... singing their songs of poetry and love, heartbreak and about the roads that they travel.  From Minstrel Shows and Medicine Shows to the Rag Operas, theaters, roadhouse and honkey tonks...

PIONEER TROUBADOUR KICK OFF SHOW FROM ERIC CLAPTON GUITAR FESTIVAL to stories about troubadours and the road...   The pictures are a mixture of pictures taken on the Pioneer Troubadours trip to play for the Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival, from a tour with Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard, and one of Willie Nelson's shows in Tx.  We plan to follow many other Pioneer Troubadours. Telling their stories as road warriors and troubadours...

Ramblin' Jack Elliott in the Drivers seat of a tour bus

At this time I am in the development of idea to present the Pioneer Troubadour project as a Weekly Music
"Reality" Show.  Hosted by Ramblin' Jack Elliott and other guest hosts along the white lines...

The new reality orientation of TV has changed what people find as exciting.  People want more information from
their viewing time.  They don't want so anymore to just see made up Hollywood stories, they want to learn about
something that is more a view of "reality."   For anyone in the music business the road is the reality, sound checks

are reality, hotel rooms and truck stops are reality.  Hanging on the bus for hours upon hours is the reality...

 

A very interesting part of the music business and the entertainment business itself is the life on the road.  The weeks
and months living in the tour busses, load in and set up of the sound and lighting equipment, and many of the other
elements that are put in place the day of a big concert to make it happen and become entertainment for the ticket
buyers is a big part of the music business itself.  Most of the troubadours of today the years past travel the U.S. in
their busses.  Much of our show will take place on and around these wagons that move music down the white lines...

The concert business is a very key element to the music business overall.   Not only is it a place where really most of
the acts make their money, but the concert tours are what actually boost the music sales for a certain artist or record
label.  The artist CD sales go up during the days of pre concert hype, and the days shortly after their gig.  Now, we
also have the fact that many artist are having to go out on the road to make money, in that the Internet has caused
many of the big music labels to shut down their A & R departments, labels are merging and the sales of music CDs
are at a all time low.

"Living on the bus, Fleck concedes, "isn't for everybody.  It's tight in there, and it's a real party
all the time.  You have to be OK with that."  On a plane, you have to get up very early after
staying up very late and sit in an uncomfortable chair for a long time.  On a bus, you sit around
and watch TV or lay down in your own bunk."  Bela Fleck

We will show the viewer the experience of the plans that it takes to build a tour from the time the artist meet with the
producers to design the feel, the stage, the lighting and sound and other elements of the show.  These huge stages
are built by companies then packed in several 18-wheeler trucks to move the stage lighting, sound and equipment
from  city to city.  This is a great visual...with fun shots in the truck stops, diners, hotels and other stops along the way.

Three of Merle Haggard's buses behind theater in Arizona

Three of Mr. "On The Road Again" himself Willie Nelson's buses parked backstage at Merle Haggard's UFO Music Fest.

 

Earnest Tubb's bus

Johnny Cash said about his bus, Unit One: "I have a home that takes me anywhere I want to go, that cradles and comforts me, that lets me nod off in the mountains and wake up on the plains, my bus, of course... When I make it off the plane and through another airport, the site of that big black MCI waiting by the curb sends waves of relief through me." "Myself, I've lived out here so long and know it all so well that I can wake up any- where in the United States, glance out the bus window, and pinpoint my position to within five miles...Like the song says, I've been everywhere, man. Twice.

During and around sound check we will set and talk with different folks that are part of the show from roadies,
truck and bus drivers, the entertainers themselves, and some of the support crew like guitar and drum techs,
caterers, promoters and T-shirt sales guys.  ON THE ROAD will show some of the logistics of getting the acts
from the hall to  the hotel rooms and then back to the venue again.  We will record and show the pre show
excitement as the people  begin to file into the concert halls and then the excitement of the band and crew
before the show.

 

Hamburger Steak Holiday Inn that's the kinda world that I live in Play a different town most every night Lovin' your woman write a new song that's my life That's my life and I love it that's my life There ain't nothin' else in the world above it I see people all alone pickin' their guitars and singin' their songs But I tell 'em forget it cause you can't fake it If you're gonna make it you've gotta live it I got a big bus with a TV and a bar And a little room in the back for me and my ole guitar Gotta stop and fuel up every five hundred miles Give a picture to the waitress eat a little breakfast country style That's my life and I love it... We get home to Nashville on a Monday night Record songs on Tuesday and on Wednesday take out the wife But then on Thursday night it's back on the road I don't care if it's Montana or down in Louisiana just as long as I go That's my life and I love it...    Hank Williams, Jr.

Click the Troubadour to see more on the road...